Businesses, charities and organisations everywhere must learn from the #BlackLivesMatter movement, according to author Sam Conniff.

“We should all be getting our notebooks out and watching the level of organisation,” said Conniff, author of ‘Be More Pirate’, who was speaking at  MAD//Fest and New Digital Age‘s 99//Club Digital Festival last week.

He said that since emerging as a hashtag, the organisation “just like the civil rights movement did” had been waiting for the right opportunity. “It was guaranteed that this was going to happen.”

“For the first time in our lifetime you have got protests in every single state, you have peaceful protests everywhere,” he added.

“As a level of organisation, every other goddamn protesting campaign from climate change onwards should take a note – this is how to effect change appropriately – whether you agree with the cause or not.”

Conniff was given just 99 seconds to sell his manifesto before being questioned by the internet audience. His pitch was that the world did not just face a crisis with Covid-19, but a “crisis in a crisis in a crisis in a crisis”.

“The Doomsday clock has moved closer to midnight than ever before,” he added.

Friday’s session focused in on innovation and also heard presentations from Vice’s Mark Adams, Author Bruce Daisley and &us’ Amy Kean, who argued that Pythagoras was the original free thinker. Google’s Craig Fenton, director of strategy and operations, and Milton Elias, head of platforms and innovations at News UK also spoke at the event.

The event closed with a House Party DJ set from record label Defected.